Weekend in Waterton I Photos

Cousins + Hike + Waterfall + Rock throwing + Ice cream = Perfect day.

Let's Go Fly A Kite

Digital LO #7

I'm getting there, and this digital is getting more fun as I go along. I recently bought a new program, ACDSee, and took the ACDSee Organization Class(for Mac, but they also have for Windows) at Jessica Sprague and have found the whole digital process going faster and easier! Yay for technology!

Monday, Monday

 We flew a kite tonight. The wind was perfect and the boys were mesmerized.

This morning, the ground was too wet for my outdoor fitness class, so I pushed up my sleeves and got some housework done. After Atlas woke up from his nap, we had a late lunch of smoothies, which are a hit around here, that's for sure!

Atlas is upset that I won't let him play with his straw, getting smoothie all over my nice clean floor. I'm a mean Mama that way, I guess.

Long Overdue Scrapbook Update: no.2 Family Pages

Family of Four: I love the little paper banner. It needed it as I realized the vintage paper wasn't wide enough... after I had tacked it down already!

Journaling reads: "You are so lucky to have a Pappy who can throw you so high in the air. Never fear. He will always catch you!"

I love the shots of us walking with Otto. I haven't really decided yet what I want to journal in the journal space.

This boy JUMPS. This totally describes who Otto is right now.

At least 30 reasons to be SO VERY grateful!

About a month ago, I did a stupid thing. Very stupid. And I don't use that word very often. But what I did was colossally stupid. To make a long story short, I deleted ALL my pictures. They hadn't been backed up and I thought they were GONE. I cried for days. I cried for weeks.

Thankfully for me, I had a friend I could turn to. The first time he did a recovery, he came up with around 21000 pictures. Unfortunately, they were all crap. Either files which had been deleted previously or files which were way too small to do anything with (we're talking 8KB or smaller). And there was virtually nothing of what I was so sad to have lost - the first 7 months of Atlas's life!! How could I have been so daft?! So, away went my external hard drive to my friend again, who ran another recovery on it. Came up with nothing. I thought that was it, and I was trying to be resolved to this fate. However, to my great surprise and joy, when I went to pick up the drive, my friend handed me another smaller drive and said, "I was able to recover about 9000 files which I copied to this drive. Take a look and see if they are what you lost." He had gone the extra mile and thought he'd run a completely different recover program. He recovered almost EVERYTHING! I say almost because there are some random pictures I know are missing. But I'm definitely NOT complaining! What was recovered is so very precious to me, as you can understand. So... here are at least 30 reasons I am grateful:

1. Otto laughing with Andy at the zoo.
2. Andy, Otto and I outside out house on a Sunday morning.
3. Otto kissing my pregnant belly.
4. Our first looks at Atlas.
5. Holding Atlas in my arms for the first time.
6. Otto meeting Atlas for the first time.
7. A first photo shoot with Atlas.
8. Atlas asleep and bundled up on the quilt I made for him.
9. Otto hiding and surprising us at his grandparents (in the closet).
10. Otto helping take Atlas' temperature at the midwives' office.
11. Atlas lounging.
12. The cutest picture of Otto ever. Happy to stop jumping on the bed for one second to flash a million dollar smile for Mama.
13. Another million dollar smile. This time from Atlas.
14. Otto and Andy pouring water in the bath. This was too cute!
15. My handsome husband.
16. One of the many pictures I've taken of Otto in his bed with random things around him. This one is classic - he's asleep right in the middle of the hula hoop!
17. Otto blowing bubbles at a family reunion last summer.
18. Oh, my Atlas. What a little sweetheart!
19. Otto playing the harmonica for a ready audience of one.
20. Andy and Atlas having a wee nap together, hand-in-hand.
21. Otto's first pony ride.
22. Otto and Atlas laying on the quilt and playing.
23. Otto and Atlas in the stroller together.
24. Otto having fun with his cousins in our jumping tent.
25. The bandaid on Otto's head. He said that Pappy had got it for him. "Pappy, so nice."
26. A happy little Atlas!
27. The boys and Mama having some fun play time. They love all the bouncy songs and want to do them all together.
28. A quick kiss. (Can it get any better than this?!)
29. A bundled up Atlas.
30. A cute Atlas beside his favorite horse.

These are moments in my life and the lives of my family which I never want to forget and which I want to be able to share for years to come. Great memories, every-day memories. These are so precious.

Summer Mini

I recently went on a crop and got most of this summer mini done. Then, I was very sick (and quite out of it) for a week, and on some heavy pain killers. I'm feeling better now, and I'm slowly regaining more energy daily. So, I was finally able to finish this and now able to show you!

This started out as an altered book. My good friend Birdie, who is a wonderful print artist, made this beautiful book and gave it to us at Otto's baby shower. And since then, I've been wondering what wonderful things I could put in it! I wanted it to be for family pictures or solely for Otto pictures.

The problem was that it was a very long accordion book and I knew that the moment I showed it to Otto and let him touch and look at it, it would get ripped quite easily (as evidenced by the stack of books I recently had to glue or tape). So I stewed over this for some time.

I finally came up with a solution I got so excited about! I asked Andy to drill two holes in the side so that I could attach some “o” rings. This way, I could make the accordion pages into pockets into which I could include more pictures and stories (it was, after all, a packed summer!).

Journaling reads: "I'm celebrating summer. Spending my days with a fun little man. Celebrating what makes him happy this first summer of discovery."

I added pictures and embellishments and included many spaces for pockets – behind pictures to allow for longer journaling for our stories (I used Ali Edwards journal overlays), and in the page pockets for extra pictures. I added ribbons and round metal tags for the pulls.

This has been one of my favorite mini books to work on. Thanks Birdie for the beautiful album!

p.s. I made a great mini album for Otto’s first year, which I’ve neglected to post here, so perhaps I will show you that next week! Also in the works: a new baby quilt! So exciting!

Happy and Holidays

{Otto, so happy on Christmas Eve}
While I love the holidays and everything that goes along with that - the family, the food, the games - I am somewhat glad it is all over and we are all getting back to normal.

That said, we had a really great holiday. Games were played, Wii was experienced, food was eaten{oh yes it was}, Otto was loved by all, and we saw everyone in the family but Niki's family, whom we all missed terribly, especially since she had her baby girl on December 10th. We can't wait to see her in February! Welcome, welcome, little Cedar Rose!


{Otto and cousin Paisley hangin' out all cute-like on Christmas morning}













{Otto saw his first Santa Claus Parade. He was mesmerized with the lights and sounds. As you can see here, he was still trying to look out into the street.}



















{Otto, so happy in his new Christmas hat - thanks Metcalfe family!}

2009 Family Portrait and a 90th Birthday!

So this weekend was a busy one! Scrappin' with the sisters-in-law on Friday, Assiya's wedding on Saturday morning/afternoon then Grandma's 90th Birthday on Saturday evening. Then more family get-togethers on Sunday.

I made the slide-show for Grandma's birthday and it was amazing to go through all the pictures of her life, right from 1919 until now. What a full life! We love you Grandma!



Andy drew this little portrait when he was supposed to be listening to the Sunday School lesson, but everyone passed it around and had a good laugh. See if you can identify all our family members!


We took our own family pictures on Saturday. I would pity any photographer who would try to do our portraits for us, it's always such a gong show! The last picture is my Grandma with her 6 great-grankids!